MeDALL team presents achievements in research on allergic diseases

MeDALL press release

Friday, January 24th, 2014

On January 23-24, the fourthannual meeting of MeDALL will be held in Paris, France. MeDALL stands for Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy and is an international four-year EU research project on the causes explaining the epidemic of allergic diseases. During the two-day meeting with 90 participants, the project’s international researchers will give an update about their activities and achievements during the previous year through high profile presentations and during expert discussions.

MeDALL researchers assessed more than 23.000 children at 4 and 8 years from 12 ongoing European population-based birth cohort studies conducted in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. The study recorded information on allergic diseases from parents and doctors and collected IgE antibodies to six allergens in blood samples (sensitisation). The study showed that about 4% of children at 4 and 8 years have two or three diseases although in around 50% of them the coexistence of two or three diseases was attributable to chance. (Further information in the press release published on 16th January)

Although the presence of two or three diseases was more common in children sensitised to common allergens it was also present in those without. The study proves that eczema, rhinitis and asthma in children are highly associated.
These results have just been published n the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. Prior to the annual meeting MeDALL organised a training day in respiratory epidemiology on January 22ndat Paris Descartes University. The training day was attended by French Masters and PhD students in public health.

About MeDALL

MeDALL is an international four-year research project supported by the EU which started in December 2010.

The MeDALL consortium encompasses 23 public and private institutions, including 3 European SMEs whose specific complementary scientific expertise will contribute to MeDALL objectives. The project is coordinated by the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM), Paris, France and the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain.

MeDALL has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under grant agreement n° 261357.